An arresting claim has dropped into my inbox. A quarter of Brits, a new survey says, are sending emails from the loo, because they are so pressed for time. “Relaxing is a thing of the past”, wails the press release, which says that a third of respondents are continuing to work on their phones in the evening — “while watching their TV programmes”. Ah. 

With “overwhelm” a feature of modern life, reports such as this imply that harassed workers are forced to multitask to keep on top of ballooning demands. But when 13 per cent of respondents admit to having done a weekly online shop during a business meeting, I wonder what’s happened to Saturday — and to their boss. Have we reached peak procrastination, in which meetings are now a performative adjunct to real life — walking the dog and cleaning the house, which respondents to this survey had done while on work calls?

Proponents of multitasking like to remind us that Archimedes had his eureka moment while in the bath. But he was letting his mind wander while he soaked. He wasn’t sitting there with his camera off, trying not to splash while others warbled on.